From Library Journal
The descent of the Iron Curtain and the subsequent chill on relaxed cultural relations with Russia has left us without a clear view of the entire spectrum of Russian art through history. Although the Hermitage and the Tretyakov Gallery are familiar to some, the huge Russian Museum in St. Petersburg, with its 40,000 works of art, is terra incognita. Housed in a palace complex in the heart of the classical Russian capital, the Russian Museum is the official face of Russian art, from the Christianization of Russia in 989 to the present. Meant as an overview of these unfamiliar works, the book presents a splendid collection of early icons and a smattering of 18th- and 19th-century portraits and academic paintings, and almost half the book is devoted to a spirited selection of paintings from the revolutionary first three decades of this century. We are almost spared official Soviet art, but equally slighted is the present-day ferment of post-breakup painting and sculpture. All 295 plates are in color, and the majority are well printed at high resolution. Recommended for both public and academic libraries.?David McClelland, Philadelphia, PACopyright 1998 Reed Business Information, Inc.
Language Notes
Text: English (translation)
Original Language: Russian
Russian Museum: A Centennial Celebration of a National Treasure FROM THE PUBLISHER
Founded in Saint Petersburg in 1898 by Czar Nicholas II, the Russian Museum was established to offer the public an unmatched treasure: a complete history of the country's arts, from superb medieval icons to the most interesting provocations of the emerging avant-garde. This book, published to celebrate the centennial of the founding of the Russian Museum, offers a panoramic view of the great sweep of Russian art and reveals the extraordinary variety of the Museum's holdings. Important highlights of the collection of more than 5,000 icons are fully illustrated and discussed. Also documented are the accomplishments of the greatest Russian painters, including the nineteenth-century Realist Ilya Repin, the pioneer landscapist Isaac Levitan, the scintillating belle-epoque portraitist Valentin Serov, the impressionist Boris Kustodiev, and such luminaries of the twentieth-century avant-garde as Kazimir Malevich - including his signature work, Black Square - and Vladimir Tatlin, the much-loved Marc Chagall, and the rising stars of contemporary Russian painting.
FROM THE CRITICS
Library Journal
The descent of the Iron Curtain and the subsequent chill on relaxed cultural relations with Russia has left us without a clear view of the entire spectrum of Russian art through history. Although the Hermitage and the Tretyakov Gallery are familiar to some, the huge Russian Museum in St. Petersburg, with its 40,000 works of art, is terra incognita. Housed in a palace complex in the heart of the classical Russian capital, the Russian Museum is the official face of Russian art, from the Christianization of Russia in 989 to the present. Meant as an overview of these unfamiliar works, the book presents a splendid collection of early icons and a smattering of 18th- and 19th-century portraits and academic paintings, and almost half the book is devoted to a spirited selection of paintings from the revolutionary first three decades of this century. We are almost spared official Soviet art, but equally slighted is the present-day ferment of post-breakup painting and sculpture. All 295 plates are in color, and the majority are well printed at high resolution. Recommended for both public and academic libraries.--David McClelland, Philadelphia, PA
Art & Photography
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